Natural resources such as gas, oil, minerals, and water residing in subterranean formations can be recovered by drilling wells in the formations. Emulsions comprising oil and water commonly occur in the extraction, production, and processing and refining of oil. It is often necessary to separate the water from the oil in order to effectively prepare the oil for further processing or refinement. Numerous demulsifiers are known in the art for removing water from such emulsions.
Demulsifiers are typically composed of one or more surfactants dispersed in a solvent system and may be derived, for example, from alcohols, fatty acids, fatty amines, glycols, and alkylphenol condensation products. The solvent systems, in turn, generally comprise aromatic distillates, including for example 1,2-Dimethylbenzene, 1,3-Dimethylbenzene and 1,4-Dimethylbenzene, which may pose adverse health effects and are not environmentally friendly. In particular, such solvents may have high VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) content, which may be non-compliant with current VOC regulations. Such solvent systems, which comprise aromatic-based solvents, are increasingly being disfavored while alternative “green” or environmentally friendly solvents are becoming more preferred for use in various applications. Therefore, a need exists for solvent bases for use in demulsifying applications that will less adversely impact the environment, human health, etc., such as by having lower toxicity levels and VOC content.
Among the crude oil demulsification methods in use today, electrostatic separation, gravity separation, centrifugation, and hydrocyclone-assisted separation are frequently used. In such methods, wash water is added until the crude oil's water content is in the range of about 4% to about 15% by volume, and a chemical demulsifier formulation is added so that the oil and the aqueous phases can be separated by separation methods known in the art.
Effective demulsification requires addition of a chemical demulsifying composition to the wash water or to the crude prior to application of an electrostatic field or centrifugal force to the crude oil emulsion. Crude oils that contain high amounts of asphaltenes and naphthenic acids are generally called heavy crude oils and are difficult to demulsify. These crude oils require specifically tailored demulsifiers for demulsification to be effective. Many demulsifiers have phenolic groups in their chemical structure. Likewise, many solvent bases in which such demulsifiers are mixed or dispersed have benzyl or phenyl groups. In some cases, demulsifiers and solvent bases that do not contain such groups, and which are effective on crude oils containing asphaltenes and naphthenic acids, are desired.
The ecological impact of offshore crude oil extraction increasingly receives attention and is the subject of scrutiny by regulatory agencies as well as the public. Environmental regulatory agencies, both national and international, have determined that demulsifiers containing nonylphenyl alkoxylates and related compounds have a deleterious effect on the marine environment. Therefore, a need exists for crude oil demulsifiers that will less adversely impact the environment, such as by having lower toxicity levels, especially in the marine environment.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2006/0135628 to Newman et al., Jun. 22, 2006, provides demulsifier formulations comprising poly(tetramethylene glycol) and an alkylene glycol copolymer linked to the poly(tetramethylene glycol) by a difunctional coupling agent. U.S. Pat. No. 6,294,093 to Selvarajan et al., Sep. 25, 2001, provides aqueous demulsifier formulations with reduced toxicity or flammability. U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2002/0161059 to Varadaraj et al., Oct. 31, 2002, discloses a demulsifier formulation comprising an alkyl aromatic sulfonic acid additive for desalting crude oil. U.S. Pat. No. 6,599,949 to Varadaraj et al., Jul. 29, 2003, discloses aromatic sulfonic acid demulsifier formulations, specifically an alkyl aromatic sulfonic acid additive and a solvent co-additive. U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2006/0260815 to Dahanayake et al., Nov. 23, 2006, discloses self-degrading foaming compositions comprising an anionic surfactant and a nonionic surfactant, including sulfosuccinates and sulfosuccinamates. International Application Publication No. WO 2000/012660 to Forschungszentrum Jülich GMBH, Mar. 9, 2000, describes a method for increasing the efficiency of surfactants by adding a block copolymer. Generally polymeric demulsifiers are used at higher levels.
Thus, there is a need for improved environmentally friendly demulsifying compositions containing low levels of surfactants in environmentally friendly solvent bases.